A total of 16 other complaints across the country have also been linked to him. (Representational)
A 24-year-old college student was arrested for allegedly duping the relatives and friends of MPs and MLAs on the pretext of providing them jobs at nationalised banks, police said on Monday.
The third-year BA student has been identified as Ashu Bajpai, a resident of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh, they said.
So far, five FIRs of similar modus operandi were found to be registered in Gujarat, Haryana, West Bengal, and Bihar. A total of 16 other complaints across the country have also been linked to him, police said.
During the investigation, it came to notice that someone was specifically targeting the relatives, friends and people known to MPs and MLAs who were looking for a job. Police found that the accused was continuously moving and operating from Kanpur and Unnao districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Bajpai procured fake SIM cards from a dealer in Lucknow and then searched for contact numbers of MPs and MLAs on the internet.
He, along with his brother and co-accused Pradeep, called over 100 MPs/MLAs posing as managers of a public bank and claimed that there were vacancies for the post of clerk, police said.
They would then contact the people referred by the lawmakers and ask for money from them on the pretext of registration charges and security fees. After a virtual interview, the victim would be offered the job, they said.
Bajpai was arrested from Kanpur after police conducted a raid, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
Bajpai was residing with Pradeep in Jankipuram in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He was working as a delivery boy at a medical store.
He, along with his brother, came across one Ravikant who gave them the idea of earning easy money through cyber fraud, police said.
Efforts are being made to arrest Pradeep, they said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)